An Eclectic Journal of Opinion, History, Poetry and General Bloviating

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

First Presidential Election—What a Yawner…News Junkies Do Not Stay Up All Night

The first campaign button were literally clothing buttons like these brass ones for George Washington.

The least exciting Presidential Election in United States history was held on
February 4, 1789.On that day the votes
of the first Electoral College under
the shiny new Constitution were
opened, read, and counted before the House
of Representatives in the new temporary capital of New York City. Earlier, the Electors of each participating state had assembled in their capitals to cast their votes.Of the 69 Electors who voted, 68 were Federalists—not yet a party but avowed
supporters of the new Constitution—and one, from Georgia, was an Anti-Federalist.

Electors were chosen in a variety of
ways.A minority were directly elected either
state-wide or by Congressional or special electoral districts.Most were elected by state legislatures, most frequently by a state’s upper chamber or Senate.Because of that, property restrictions
on voting, exclusion of Blacks slave
or free, and of women, less than 1.3% of the adult
population of the nation got to cast a popular
vote for an elector, and thus indirectly for President.The total popular vote was only 38,818.

Only 10 of the 13 states
participated in the election.North Carolina and Rhode Island could not because they had not yet ratified the Constitution.In New York Anti-Federalists led by Governor George Clinton and Federalists
controlled by Alexander Hamilton
deadlocked in the state legislature and failed to select their allotted 8
Electors.In addition, one Virginia district failed to report
returns and was thus had no Elector.One
Virginia and two Maryland Electors
did not vote.

Electoral College Results by state.

A total of 12 candidates were
nominated for the Presidency, led by Revolutionary
War Commander in Chief George Washington.But at first it was not certain that Washington would accept the
post.Other candidates either hoped that
Washington would stay in Virginia, or hoped to be selected Vice President.The
candidates included the well-known— Minister
to Great Britain John Adams, Governor
John Hancock of Massachusetts, Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation John Jay, General Benjamin Lincoln, and governors
ofConnecticut,
South Carolina, and Georgia.New York
Governor Clinton was the best known Anti-Federalist.And there were less well known candidates—Robert H. Harrison of Maryland, Georgia Secretary of State John Milton,
and James Armstrong who was so
obscure that historians are not entirely sure about who he was or if he was
from Pennsylvania or from Georgia,
where one Elector pledged to him was
elected.

In fact all of the secondary
candidates had at least one pledged Elector, with Adams leading the pack.

When Washington finally signaled his
willingness to serve, all participating Electors cast their votes for him,
making him the only man ever unanimously elected president with 69 votes.

No body printed any of these....

But under the new Constitution, each
Elector cast two votes for President.The top total vote-getter—if he achieved a majority in the College—would
be President and the second place finisher would be Vice President.Although locked out of the procedure by New
York’s stalemate, Alexander Hamilton, acting as a Federalist whip, made sure that votes were withheld
from Adams to ensure a clear victory for Washington.Other electors cast their second vote among
the other candidates.Adams won with 36
votes, only one more than the needed 35.

Adams felt slighted by Hamilton’s
work to keep his support down among Federalists.It was the beginning of a long, bitter rivalry for leadership of the
Federalists as they morphed into a real political party.